The History of CCTV

CCTV (Closed Circuit Television) has a varied history in its devices and applications, and there are improvements being made consistently. The devices used today are significantly more advanced and therefore more easily able to capture perpetrators.

Here’s a look at some of CCTV’s history.

The first CCTV system was installed in Germany in 1942 to observe the launch of V-2 rockets.

Early systems had to be constantly monitored as they had no way to record or store information. This meant surveillance systems weren’t widespread, but more people started using them in the 1970’s when VCR technology became available, allowing users to record and delete footage.

Outdoor CCTV in Bournemouth in 1985 was one of the CCTV experiments in the 1970’s and 80’s which led to larger trial programs. The first use of CCTV by the government was in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, in 1987. These experiments were deemed successful and today systems cover most town centres and public areas within them.

Digital multiplexing was invented in the 1990’s, allowing several cameras to record at the same time and included time-lapse and motion recording. This meant a big savings of time and money and CCTV became more in demand.

Home security was made available in the early 2000’s to the consumer market, with cameras typically coming as part of a monitored alarm package.

An article published in 2011 in CCTV Image magazine estimated there were 1.85 million private and local government operated CCTV cameras in all of the UK. According to information from the Freedom of Information act that same year, local government operated CCTV cameras were at 52,000 over the whole UK.

Wiltshire, UK was one of the first to adopt “talking CCTV” in 2003, in which people monitoring the CCTV can talk to any offenders that turn up, ordering them to stop what they are doing. Since then other towns have had these cameras installed, and many businesses use them to communicate to employees or criminals.

With all the advances to technology, CCTV can now be remotely monitored by a company in a control room, or even on a smart phone or tablet. Recording equipment can be set to refresh itself instead of manually being set. With advancing technology, there’s also more access to people and businesses to have state of the art security systems for a fraction of what it used to cost.

If you would like to discuss a security solution for your business, contact us today.